Windowed graphical user interfaces (GUIs) provide a popular and well known display metaphor for a user to interact with an operating system of a computer device. A typical windowed GUI provides a basic background, sometimes referred to as a desktop, within which visual cues, such as icons or windowed applications, are available for user interaction. The operating system of the computer device uses the window metaphor to permit a user to open and interact with a number of child windows within the desktop or main application window. The child windows can be of several different types, and take on many shapes and forms, which often depend on their underlying application or purpose. In general, child windows represent separate applications and can be manipulated independently by the user. For example, they can separately be resized, moved, minimized, maximized, restored, closed and subject to other user manipulations in accordance with the metaphor of a windowed environment.
Some software applications may be operated in a separate parent window that has one or more child windows that may or may not be restricted by the confines of the parent window. Sometimes, child windows can be implemented within the context of a parent application window, so that the child windows move, minimize and close with the parent window, for example.
This feature of having a parent-child windowed relationship provides a useful metaphor for the user, where the associated windows of an application are managed as a group. For example, the windows that are managed as a group in a parent-child relationship are often conceptually unified by a common theme, such as a task or application. The user may select a window or group of windows for input, sometimes referred to as receiving the focus, and may expect that selection to reflect a particular concept, such as conducting a search or performing data entry.
Accordingly, a windowed application that does not have the focus would not be expected to have child windows that would receive the focus, so that the behavior of the application as a cohesive unit is maintained. In this way, the child windows appear to exhibit the same behavior that the parent window exhibits. If this were not the case, and child windows exhibited independent behavior from that of the parent, the user experience would be fragmented and disjointed. For example, the user may become confused or frustrated if a child window of an application was manipulated separately from the main application window.